Death stalks the Yakama

epidemiological transitions and mortality on the Yakama Indian Reservation, 1888-1964

Clifford E. Trafzer

Publication Year: 1997

Clifford Trafzer's disturbing new work, Death Stalks the Yakama, examines life, death, and the shockingly high mortality rates that have persisted among the fourteen tribes and bands living on the Yakama Reservation in the state of Washington. The work contains a valuable discussion of Indian beliefs about spirits, traditional causes of death, mourning ceremonies, and memorials. More significant, however, is Trafzer's research into heretofore unused parturition and death records from 1888-1964. In these documents, he discovers critical evidence to demonstrate how and why many reservation people died in "epidemics" of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and heart disease. Death Stalks the Yakama, takes into account many variables, including age, gender, listed causes of death, residence, and blood quantum. In addition, analyses of fetal and infant mortality rates as well as crude death rates arising from tuberculosis, pneumonia, heart disease, accidents, and other causes are presented. Trafzer argues that Native Americans living on the Yakama Reservation were, in fact, in jeopardy as a result of the "reservation system" itself. Not only did this alien and artificial culture radically alter traditional ways of life, but sanitation methods, housing, hospitals, public education, medicine, and medical personnel affiliated with the reservation system all proved inadequate, and each in its own way contributed significantly to high Yakama death rates.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

CONTENTS

PREFACE

The present work is an outgrowth of my previous research on
various Indian tribes living on the Columbia River Plateau. In
1977, I began research on a book dealing with the history of the
Palouse Indians of eastern Washington. During the course of
my research, I traveled west with my colleague, Richard D...

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

Death Stalks the Yakama reflects my interest in an interdisciplinary
approach to Native American history, using documents and
methodologies of social history, religious studies, anthropology,
sociology, oral history, and oral literature. It is hoped that this
approach contributes to scholarly inquiry about native peoples...

PART TWO THE YAKAMA

From Lake Keeschelus in the Cascade Mountains of west central
Washington state flows a magnificent river. It snakes its way
southeasterly through evergreen forests and into an open,
rolling valley. The river cuts across a portion of the Great
Columbia Plateau and receives the water of dozens of...

PART THREE YAKAMA DEATH CERTIFICATES: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS

PART FOUR COMPARISON OF YAKAMA DEATH RATES WITH OTHER POPULATIONS

Over half of the deaths on the Yakama Reservation between
1888 and 1964 resulted from three major causes, namely tuberculosis,
pneumonia, and heart disease (figure 1.2). Comparisons
made here in relation to deaths from these diseases are drawn...

PART FIVE CONCLUSION

Yakama Reservation underwent major epidemiological and
nutritional transitions over time. They have survived radical
cultural changes, the difficulties of a white invasion of their
lands, and the trials that ensued after the imposition of the
Yakama Treaty of 1855. The harvest of the American invasion...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.